Preventable injuries are frequent and pervasive amongst the most vulnerable and fastest growing patient populations worldwide, the elderly and diabetic. In particular, healthcare providers struggle to mitigate preventable injuries in the body's largest organ, the skin and associated soft tissue. They simply lack the tools to identify the earliest signs of emerging skin and wound complications, thus missing the most critical time to intervene and reduce injury incidence and/or severity. These preventable skin injuries account for nearly $40 billion of costs to the healthcare industry in the U.S. alone.
In the U.S. alone over 40 million patients per year will be cared for throughout more than 5,000 hospitals, 15,000 nursing homes and 12,000 home health agencies. The majority of these admissions represent “at-risk” patient populations. For diabetics, an mHealth solution like this one provides early detection capabilities via self-monitoring.
In October 2014 Medicare penalties for preventable skin injuries came into particular focus. Two key programs, Hospital Acquired Condition and Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, impose dramatic financial repercussions onto hospitals with poor rates of performance. With payment denials and unprecedented penalties of up to 3% across all Medicare dollars, the financial stakes related to skin and wound management outcomes have never been higher. Prevention is critical.
Monitoring skin integrity, skin based clinical parameters and wound status is an integral component to the prevention and management of wounds and/or underlying physiological conditions. Treatment and/or intervention decisions are based on clinical impressions and observations, but conventional methods of skin integrity and/or soft tissue assessment rely heavily on subjective detection and interpretation of subtle clinical cues. This subjectivity in manual and/or other heuristic clinical assessment techniques introduces variability into care pathways from the moment of initial assessment and through to subsequent inspections. Advances in sensor technologies coupled with mobile capabilities and the digitalization of clinical documentation allow for development of more objective, practical and economical tools for use at the point of care. Development of a valid and reliable tool to objectively capture relevant parameters of skin and/or condition assessment leverages technology to introduce an innovative approach to improve patient safety, quality and coordination of care.
Technology advancements are occurring but tend to focus on monitoring compliance with a particular process of care. Next generation solutions, such as disclosed herein, allow early detection and strategically incorporate a wide range of clinically and operationally meaningful throughput capabilities focused on data sciences and full stack integration.